Rickicism No. 8 Some of us arrive at our Program and soon develop a fired-up frame of mind, determined to do well, but expecting miracles overnight. OA Longtimers know that it is probably not going to happen quite that way. Logic will tell you that it took some very poor self management of effort, resources and time to get ourselves to the point where we desperately needed the Program, having already exhausted all the fast fixes out there with which we had been bombarded on a daily basis, with ultimately depressingly negative results. Our Program does not profess to be an instant solution but ..read more

I use to think that from day one, I had Step one licked. I knew for sure I was powerless over food. I thought, “Are you kidding?” The evidence is all over the place, the sweet-seeking and binging on recreational sugar, the compulsion to eat more once I start and the constant overeating at meals, taking comfort in the repetition of fork to mouth and that all too familiar feeling of being stuffed to the point of physical pain. For sure, my life was unmanageable. No doubt.  But today I know that working step one is more than that. Being powerless means knowing my biggest food triggers (alco ..read more

Just as Hamlet contemplated his existence with the question “To be, or not to be” in the famous Shakespearian soliloquy, we overeaters must contemplate our disease with a similar thought, to participate or to isolate. For many of us our disease is one of isolation. It wants us to stay home on the couch with our food at the ready. But we must not give in to that desire if we wish to recover from compulsive eating. One powerful weapon in our arsenal is participation. Participate by working all the steps, participate by working the tools, participate by giving service, and p ..read more

I really want to eat something that tastes good right now. I am opening up kitchen cabinets in a frantic search for something, anything to put in my mouth to distract me from the crazy uncomfortable feelings.  The urgency to compulsively overeat feels like a swelling wave coming to drown me. The only thing that can save me from certain doom is to take a giant breath and dive under, aka taking that first bite. I want to dive under. I have to dive under or I am going to drown.  A faint voice (HP) tells me not to dive. I do what the voice says, reluctantly. I stay a ..read more

Attending the 62nd OA Birthday Party felt like a spiritual supercharge, a re-vitalizing way to start off the new year. The meetings were held via Zoom for safety reasons, of course. Admittedly, zooming the entire weekend for a total of 25 hours was exhausting, but it was doable with breaks and in the end was totally worth it. [Aside: I had the fortunate pleasure of attending my first OA Birthday party in 2020, in person, oblivious to how much the world would change just 2 months later.] I took a ton of notes this weekend because I heard so many things I needed to hear:  God is in the P ..read more

Step Two- “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”  Recently I was asked to share on Step Two. Not my favorite step, it’s the one I sprint by on the way to Step Three, the really exciting one. So I had to take another look at it.  I have always disliked its use of the word “sanity.” I associate insanity, spoken with a wink, with the bundle of amusing eccentricities I like to think make me an attractive personality. Interesting, not ordinary. Another, more contemporary meaning seems to be “unusually advantageous ..read more

I link the number of each month to a Step. Then that’s the Step I focus on for the whole month. So, this month, October, is my Step 10 month. I read the Step in both the AA and OA 12 & 12 and ponder the relevant principle.  In the OA 12 & 12, Steps 1, 2 and 3 are summarized simply as “I can’t; God can; I think I’ll let God!” (page 17, 2nd edition). Similarly, I think “perseverance” can be simplified to “Keep coming back.” Simple but powerful. It’s the only thing I’ve done perfectly in OA. But it has been enough to keep my “membership” intact. I set myself a task this month to s ..read more

The wisdom that resonates with me today is, "It's not about the food." As I have heard in these virtual rooms, "It's about the build up of human emotion." Last week I found myself doing something I hadn't done in months-- thinking obsessively about and craving recreational sugar. When I finally told my sponsor about it, she helped me cut through the mire I was tangled up in. She said "It's not about the food" and told me to write about what was going on in my life. Writing isn't new. I journal daily and had already written about the things that were making me anxious. But whe ..read more

  Here's another selection from one of our beloved, late program members: Rickicism No. 13 Since the most prevalent symptom of my disease is to forget what I must do each day, it becomes critical to my personal sense of well-being to start out on the right foot. Consider this contrast in approaches: A person wakes in the morning, goes over to the bedroom window, looks up at the sky and says, "Good morning, Lord!" Alternatively, but using essentially the same words, another person awakes in the morning, goes over to the bedroom window, looks up at the sky and says, "Good Lord, mornin ..read more

I had a victory today that I wanted to share. I was dreading a doctor appointment because the last time I was there, I did not feel heard. My old self would have gone home and binged after my appointment to make myself feel better. This behavior would spill into the next day, and the next, and the next to the point where I did not even realize what I was doing. It would become second nature. I would wake up a month later and wonder to myself, how did I get here? How did it get so bad? And then I would try to reign it in and control my compulsive eating with various die ..read more